I must admit I'm not really the reading type, truth be told I've only ever read 2 fictional books (shocking I know and there it is, I've said it). For some reason or another I've never really gotten out of the 'educational phase' where if I wasn't reading fact or learning something as I read then I'm wasting time. I now know that that's a load of baloney and there is so much to be gained from reading fiction. I have 'Twilight' to thank for shaking me out of reading about hedge fund management and into the turmoils of living as a vampire with a smelly dog as your rival - and how enthralling it was!
Anyway, I have one more confession which has haunted me since my junior school days. Okay, we had a 'reading week' diary that we had to keep and write down how may pages of a book we'd read and get our parents to sign having bared witness to us reading aloud. Well, the books on the school shelves were of no interest to me, so every Tuesday evening I would sit and sift through the pages of a fictional book I'd plucked from the shelf of tosh and make up how many pages I'd read on each night of the week. I would then ask my Mum to sign on the dotted line (non the wiser to my cunning plan) and voila my reading week book was complete! Wednesday morning would come and I'd have my trusty reading week book in hand ready for the headmaster to counter sign. There I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders (I'm exaggerating I was over it by the following Tuesday evening when I would do the same again!)
I wonder whether my need for reading fact stemmed from my early years. My parents bought me a book of Shakespeare plays for children after a trip to Stratford and I felt glued to it! The headmaster asked my Mother whether I genuinely wanted to read this book and she agreed that I'd just taken to it. I must explain; my Mother is a big reader with practically a life long membership to the book club, she would shower my Brother and I in all the books we could wish for. Not wanting to sound ungrateful (although I probably was) no book interested me like the Shakespeare book did. So whilst my class mates read Tin Tin, I sat giggling at Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream.
Anyway, I think the fact I'd grown up with Shakespeare in my life (my Sister is an actress & my Father an avid fan who played King Lear) definitely attributed to it, it wasn't just because I was weird!
Well, that's enough about me..........what about you?! I love conversations, that's the only thing with blogging it seems a bit 'one way'! Well, I'm hoping to learn how to use this website and make my page look pretty, so hold tight - improvements to come as soon as I figure it out! ;-) For now take care and I'll speak soon!
- Francesca. xxx
